Dear Australia: Saba Vasefi's bittersweet symphony

Saba Vasefi is a feminist, academic, human rights campaigner, film-maker and poet. Six years ago, after being banned from lecturing in Iran, she left her home country. ‘I arrived in Australia carrying only a red suitcase in one hand and my 10-year-old daughter in another.’ In the latest in Guardian Australia’s series on refugees, she tells her story – and that of her daughter, an accomplished cellist. ‘Her flourishing shifted my life from darkness to light.’

Refugees are too often described by politicians and parts of the media as a problem. But behind the headlines are people with powerful personal stories. The Guardian’s Dear Australia project is a new series that will hear the firsthand testaments of refugees and asylum seekers. Together their videos will tell the larger story of those who seek sanctuary to build new lives in Australia